Namibia lose despite late heroics 

Namibia ended their Oman tour with another defeat as they went down by two wickets to the home team in Al Amerat yesterday.

It followed another remarkable comeback by their bowlers which nearly resulted in an astonishing victory, but in the end their batting total of 96 was too litle as Oman reached 100/8 with more than half their overs remaining. 

Oman seemed to be heading for a comfortable victory at 42 without loss after 10 overs, but Namibian captain Gerhard Eramus turned the match on its head with a superb bowling spell. 

He bowled Aamir Kaleem for 21 and with Jatinder Singh (14) and Hammad Mirza (4) following in quick succession, Oman were under pressure at 48/3. Wasim Ali and Vinayak Shukla revived their innings with a 30-run partnership, but Scholtz initiated a dramatic batting collapse by trapping Ali lbw for 10, and with Erasmus at his best from the other end, Oman lost their next four wickets for only 10 runs. 

Erasmus first had Shakeel Ahmed brilliantly caught by Nicol Loftie-Eaton at slip and then trapped Jay Odera lbw for a golden duck, and with Oman at 87/8 Namibia were right back in the game. 

Loftie-Eaton, who’s fielding was superb throughout the tour, unfortunately spoiled his streak when he dropped a difficult chance off Hashir Dafedar that would have reducd them to 92/9, but in stead Hafedar hit the winning four two balls later to clinch a nerve-wracking victory. 

Earlier, Namibia’s batters once again failed to build a solid platform as they were restricted to 96 all out, with only Loftie-Eaton (30) making much of an impression, while Shakeel Ahmed took 4/25 to win the player of the match award. 

Had Namiba pulled off the victory it would have been the second lowest winning total in the history of ODI cricket, and the home pitch at the Al Amerat Stadium took quite a bit of criticism from Erasmus after the match. 

“It was not great cricket on the day. It certainly wasn’t a showcase of where we want to take associate cricket. It’s definitely not what the player, I believe, should want to be striving towards in terms of improving himself as a cricketer. It’s just all-round, not a very nice game to play,” he said. 

“It was tough, there’s no doubt about that. Every game is like a two-point war and it showed out there on this type of wicket. I guess that’s the reason teams will prepare something like that. It doesn’t really matter about the cricket that’s played. They want the two points,” he added. 

“That’s the nature of the beast that has been created in our level of the cricket and unfortunately, whether you agree with it or not, you’ve got to come to the ground and try and get two points,” he said. 

On Friday, Namibia once again rued some missed chances as they suffered a 70-run defeat to the United States. 

The USA posted a solid 268/9, and then restricted Namibia to 198 all out, but had Namibia taken their chances they could well have won the match.

The USA were cruising at 136/1 by the 30th over, but Bernard Scholtz swung the match Namibia’s way with a brilliant bowling spell of five wickets for 22 runs, and with the USA suddenly reduced to 165/5 with 11 overs to go, the outcome was still wide open. 

Scholtz, however, received little support from Namibia’s other bowlers, with Ruben Trumpelmann particularly expensive at 1/76 off 10 overs, and with Aaron Jones (31) and Sanjay Krishnamurthi (41) leading their revival the USA reached a sizable total.

Namibia’s batters failed to lay a solid foundation, with only Zane Green (65) and Loftie-Eaton (28) offering some resistance, and when they were reduced to 136/7 the USA were well in charge. 

The contest wasn’t over though as Trumpelmann led a late revival with a swashbuckling innings to give Namibia renewed hope.

Jasdeep Singh, however, bowled Trumpelmann for 55 off 35 balls (7×4, 2×6) and Namibia were soon all out for 198.

Yesterday’s win sees Oman moving up to second position on the log on 18 points from 15 matches, just behind the USA, whom they play on Wednesday, on 20 points. 

They are followed by Canada (16), the Netherlands (14) and Scotland (14), while Namibia trail in sixth place on 12 points.